How to Add Additional Contact Fields

Additional fields contain all the information we know about each contact. You can use it for audience segmentation and marketing automation.

Usage of Additional Fields

Most often, you can use data from additional fields in two cases:

Case 1. Email personalization

When editing text blocks in an email, select Personalization, and you will see a list of fields that you can use to address subscribers.

If a contact has not provided some or all the personal data, such as a name, the corresponding field in a message would contain the filed name instead of the real data. . In such cases, you can add alternative text in the personalization field. Add it between the vertical bar and the second % sign. This text will substitute all the missing recipient’s data in the corresponding additional fields.

Case 2. Creating dynamic segments for targeted campaigns

A dynamic segment is created based on dynamic conditions which you can choose depending on your contact base. The segment cards can change based on whether the contact matches the chosen conditions.

Let’s see how to use the data from additional fields to set up a birthday campaign.

1. When creating a dynamic segment, set the condition for the Date of birth (today, tomorrow, or other period).

2.Schedule a daily email to this segment.

The segment data is updated every day, and only those contacts receive emails, whose birth date complies with the set condition.

You can add more conditions, for example, gender.

Additional fields available by default

To view the list of additional fields in your account:

1. Click your account in the upper right corner.
2. Select Settings.
3. Click Additional fields.

Basically, Personal list with the fields Date of birth and Gender is preset in an account.

This section displays:

• The field ID and type used to automate the work with contacts using the API.

• Variables (%PERSONAL.GENDER%, %FIRSTNAME%, etc.) to automatically substitute the field's contents in emails.

Also, you can create your personal set of additional fields in your account.

How to add fields in our platform

You can create a new list of fields or add new fields to the existing lists. Let's go step by step and create a new Additional info list.

Step 1. Creating a new list

1. Click the New list of fields button.

2. Type the list name in the Name field.

The personalization key is generated automatically based on the given name. This key is used in your content to refer to this list. We recommend using a descriptive name in capital Latin letters with no spaces or special symbols.

3. Click the Save button.

Step 2. Adding fields to the existing list

Now you can add any additional field by clicking the plus button.

Specify the name of the field. By default, the field type is saved in the Text box type.

If you need to set another field type, go to step 3.

Step 3. Choosing the field type

Depending on the type of the contact data to be stored, the following field types are available in our CDP:

• Text box
• Text area
• Number
• Fractional number
• Date
• Date with time
• Dropdown list
• Checkbox list

Text box

Used for text characteristics of the contact. The maximum allowed number of characters in the field is one thousand both letters and integer numbers. Special characters (for example, % ^ * | ~ {) are not supported.

Text area

The field can contain up to five thousand characters, both letters and integer numbers. Special characters are not supported.

Number

Can only contain integer values between -2147483647 and 2147483647.

Fractional number

This field can contain integers and fractions.

Date

A field to store the date and time. API values are passed in ISO 8601 format. Date format: YYYY-MM-DD.

A Regular date option is used to determine a creation date, anniversary, etc.

Select the Regular date checkbox to use it for creating dynamic segments:

Date with time

The supported format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm

Dropdown list

It contains predefined values, useful for storing the gender, status or language data of a subscriber.

Important: Do not use the dot character in the field’s name: MARITAL.STATUS.

Checkbox list

This type of field is ideal for characterizing contact's preferences, activity, or professional skills when you need to enter multiple values.

To write or update the Checkbox list field using the Search contacts API, transfer the field ID in the fields array and specify the values separated by commas:

"fields": [{

"id": 87166,

"value": "Chinese "

 }]

Also, don't forget to specify the ID in the customFieldsIDs object — the list of identifiers for additional fields to be updated. Only those additional contact fields which IDs are specified in this list are updated.

The result of a query for the Favorite dishes field:

Creating lists and adding fields for your segments allows you to make advanced segmentation of your contacts. This allows you to personalize the content and send relevant messages.